Seattle’s bike share program set to launch in September

If you think there are already a lot of bicycles on the streets of Seattle, 500 more will take to the road this fall thanks to the city’s new bike share program.

Backers announced details of the ambitious new Pronto! Emerald City Cycle Share Monday. It’s the culmination of years of planning, said Holly Houser, executive director of the program.

“For several years, dedicated bike share supporters have been pulling together the pieces of this program, including funding, local partnerships, hardware and the technology,” Houser said.

The bicycles will initially be available starting in September at 50 different docking stations around the city, mostly in the University District, South Lake Union, Downtown and Capitol Hill neighborhoods. The locations and other details will be finalized after a series of 10 community listening sessions.

Users can buy an annual membership for $85, 3-day pass for $16, or a 24-hour pass for $8. Members may make as many 30 minute or less trips at no extra cost. Rides, which last longer than 30 minutes, incur additional fees based on how long users keep the bike. The fees are minimal in the first additional half hour but escalate after that.

The program got a big boost from Alaska Airlines, which contributed $2.5 million over five years to support the bike share program. As a presenting sponsor, Alaska’s logo will appear on the first 500 bikes and on marketing materials.

“I made one call and they said ‘let us know how to do it.’ They didn’t say ‘let me get back to you or what is this.’ They just said ‘let us know how to do it,'” says Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.

The nonprofit Puget Sound Bike Share will own the operation, which will be run by Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share.

The company operates bike share programs in a number of cities including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Chicago and New York, and draws rave reviews from users.

San Francisco’s pilot program launched in 2013 and is already set to expand to 1,500 bikes.

“It’s really transformative, I’m excited to see it expand,” says Kristin Smith with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “I often times take it to meetings downtown, or maybe if it seems it might rain that day I might take bike share to work and then ride transit home.”

Smith says the San Francisco program – which her organization has no direct involvement with – has encouraged a number of new bike riders to take to the streets.

“It’s extremely popular,” she says. In a lot of ways it’s much easier than preparing your own bike to ride. It’s a really great introductory way to get into biking.”

Bike share systems are now in operation in over 200 cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, London, Paris, and Barcelona with more programs launching each year. In London, the 8,000-bike Barclays Cycle Hire program has recorded 22 million trips since its launch in 2010.